Personal finance for people who want to be great with money — written by the friend who already is.
College, insurance, aging parents, inheritance — the money conversations most families never quite have, until they have to.
The framework
Family finance failures are almost never about arithmetic. They're about conversations that got postponed until a crisis made them urgent. Four conversations, had early, prevent most of it.
Fixed costs are the enemy. Attack them once a year.
Insurance, subscriptions, phone, internet, banking fees. Four-figure savings hiding in plain sight.
Decide what you'll fund before your kid decides where to apply.
The honest answer is usually a number, not a school. Say the number out loud, ten years early.
Term life, umbrella, disability — the boring policies nobody talks about.
Insurance is a hedge against a specific event, not an investment. Buy accordingly.
The document that saves your family six figures and six months.
Accounts, passwords, wishes, providers. Assembled in an afternoon. Priceless in a crisis.
Voices on this desk
Joining soon
The Budget Optimizer
Left consulting to help ordinary families find $8,000 a year without eating rice and beans.
Joining soon
The Financial Planner
Fee-only CFP who thinks in decades, not quarters. Believes a good plan is boring on purpose.
Joining soon
The Retirement Coach
Spent a career helping people navigate the five years on either side of retirement. The most under-planned decade of most lives.
Joining soon
The Consumer Advocate
Fifteen years reporting on fees, scams, and the fine print. Reads the terms so you don't have to.
On this desk
Jul 8
Issue #8
It's a good tool. It's not the whole plan. Here's the honest version of what it does — and what it quietly costs.
1 min read
Evergreen
Jul 3
Issue #24
The question every parent asks in their mid-forties. The plain answer, and the reason it isn't close.
1 min read
Evergreen
Jun 24
Issue #9
Four questions, one afternoon. The families who ask them early are the ones who don't fight in the hospital waiting room.
1 min read
Evergreen
May 27
Issue #30
Two weeks in October decide most of your family's healthcare and benefits math for the next year. A short list of what to actually change.
1 min read
Time-sensitive
The Desk Reads
Sources we track — not endorsements. The Smart Money reads widely and writes its own take. When a dispatch draws on one specifically, it's cited at the bottom.
Established sources
Jean Chatzky — the household-money standard.
The 529 database that actually gets updated.
The emotional weight, not just the math.
The authority on paying for college.
Michelle Singletary — Washington Post
The model for reader-question columns about family money.
Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk — the aging-parents playbook.
Student loans and college funding, deeply covered.
Family and career money conversations, long-running.
Rising voices
Financial Feminist — the younger household voice.
No-judgment explainers; a tone model for Office Hours.
Primary & data sources
Aid deadlines for the Seasonal Playbook.
College Board — Trends in College Pricing
Cost data for Case Studies.
Open-enrollment dates and rules.
Eldercare cost data.
Follow just this desk
Just the Family Finance Desk — the household playbook, once a week.
The weekly dispatch
The kind of financial advice you'd get from a friend who's already figured it out. No hot takes, no leaderboards, no affiliate hustle.